A multicast virtual private network (Multicast Virtual Private Network, MVPN) is a technology supporting a multicast service on the basis of an existing border gateway protocol (Border Gateway Protocol, BGP)/multi-protocol label switching VPN (Multi-Protocol Label Switching VPN, MPLS VPN). In the technology, a private network multicast packet, multicast signaling, and the like are encapsulated, and transferred through a public network tunnel, so as to accomplish transfer of multicast data across public networks. A next generation MVPN (Next Generation MVPN, NG MVPN) technology proposes that a BGP carries multicast signaling on the basis of an existing MVPN, so that multicast signaling is no longer transferred through a public network tunnel.
In an MVPN or an NG MVPN, to enable an ordinary customer edge router (Customer Edge, CE) to acquire rendezvous point (Rendezvous Point, RP) information. The ordinary CE needs to receive and save a bootstrap message that includes the RP information and is sent by a bootstrap router (Bootstrap Router, BSR). In the prior art, when a BSR is configured at the side of a receiver provider edge router (Provider Edge, PE), a process of transferring a bootstrap message includes: sending, by the BSR, a bootstrap message to the receiving PE; sending, by the receiving PE, the bootstrap message to a source PE through a public network tunnel after receiving the bootstrap message sent by the BSR; and receiving, by the source PE, the bootstrap message, and then sending the bootstrap message to an ordinary CE.
During implementation of the process of transferring a bootstrap message, the inventor finds that, because a receiving PE does not send data, a public network tunnel from the receiving PE to a source PE does not exist; and to transfer a bootstrap message, a public network tunnel from the receiving PE to the source PE needs to be separately created for a bootstrap message, which consumes a tunnel resource.